Lendo: It is inappropriate for the High Representative to participate in the 'Kovačević' case

(Patria) - I was informed by the media that the High Representative of the international community for Bosnia and Herzegovina has decided to take part, on his own initiative, in the appeal proceedings before the European Court of Human Rights in the case of "Kovačević v. Bosnia and Herzegovina", stated the Vice-President of the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina, Refik Lendo.

"I express my strong personal opposition to such a poor decision of his, due to the harmful consequences it will have on the political system of Bosnia and Herzegovina, as well as on the rule of law and democratic society as a whole. The political message conveyed by such a decision is particularly harmful, implying support for the goals of Croatian national policy in Bosnia and Herzegovina.

I call on the High Representative, in order to prevent permanent and devastating consequences for the state of Bosnia and Herzegovina, to reconsider the decision to participate in the appeal proceedings before the European Court of Human Rights in the case of "Kovačević v. Bosnia and Herzegovina" and to rely on the opinion of the Peace Implementation Council, which, according to information available from the media, is against his participation in the proceedings", the statement added.

He adds: "I am deeply convinced that it is neither appropriate, even in the form of a 'friendly opinion' to the European Court of Human Rights, for the High Representative to participate in the case of "Kovačević v. Bosnia and Herzegovina", in which the principles of civic political representation are defended, and to support, with his own authority and that of the international community in the perception of the general and political public, the achievement of the goals of Croatian national policy and the principles of ethnic political representation".

"The High Representative is obliged to consider the circumstances in which we witness that cadres of Croatian national policy, through synchronized action via the Ministry of Justice of Bosnia and Herzegovina and a suspiciously filled Office of the Agent of the Council of Ministers of Bosnia and Herzegovina before the European Court of Human Rights, are trying, by all legal and political means, to adapt the outcome of the judgment in the case of "Kovačević v. Bosnia and Herzegovina" to the goals of Croatian national policy and to strengthen the ethnic principle of political representation.

The High Representative has an obligation, with the authority of the office he holds, to provide strong support and influence political actors in power to implement the judgments of the European Court of Human Rights in the group of cases "Sejdić and Finci" and use them as a legal and political basis to eliminate all forms of discrimination from the political system of Bosnia and Herzegovina, to fully democratize the electoral process as the basic tool of representative democracy, to organize the state on the principle of civic political representation, and thus create the preconditions for Bosnia and Herzegovina to transition from the Dayton framework to a Brussels-style state organization", Lendo concludes.